Review of The American (2010) by Dimitri S — 17 Sep 2014

8/10 = must see - deep character study, using pictures instead of words.

Misleading trailer! This isn't a mainstream hollywood action film, there are some action scenes, but carefully placed and used at a minimum, just as much is needed to portrait the character Jack (George Clooney). Instead it's an artistic masterpiece, I watched it 6 times and it gets better every time you see it.

Speaking of artistic masterpiece, Anton Corbijn draws a superb image of Jacks inner life only through photography, telling a story just with pictures, the characters don't talk a lot and as said, flying bullets are used sparely. He gives each scene the exact perfect time to develop and every picture gets its own incredible color composition. I want more movies bringing photography to a similar level of perfection!??While this movie could feel kinda slow and underwhelming for the average cinema visitor (cause it's not an adrenalin packed action movie), it still serves the right amount of compelling tension from beginning till end.

Jack is a hitman and weapon maker, coming to a certain age, dealing with his inner struggle about his life, his wasted past and his desperate desire to connect with other people, to be a human being. Sketching every emotion this character brings along, like loneliness, forgiving yourself as well as others forgiving you, the movie touches your inner soul and is very moving.

This film got only two weak spots: First, I think Anton Corbijn could have gone even further with this character study (just a little bit) and second, the sometimes not so perfect performance of the supporting actors. Ye I know, these characters are intentionally played kinda poor" and seemingly insignificant" to express their distance and the impossibility for Jack to reach them. But there's a difference between playing poor very well and playing poor not so well, you get what I mean..?

If you're just slightly into artistic films, this is a must see.

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My rating scale.

10 over the top / 9 perfect / 8 must see / 7 extremely good / 6 very.

Good / 5 good / 4 OK / 3 so-so / 2 bad / 1 don't watch it.